Incident on 36th Street
by KnightGuardian
Summary: The incident on 36th street is stirring up old wounds and Jack is doing what he does best. Burying the past. But memories, good or bad are never truly forgotten. The Doctor knows this all to well, because memories, like thruths cannot be escaped.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or Torchwood.**

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_Cold. That was the first thing he realized, and naked explaining the coldness. _

_Everything was painted in vivid splashes of red and black and brown, mostly red though. Their faces were splattered with red-red blood, smeared at the corner of their mouths drenching their arms up to the expensive cufflinks rolled to the elbows. _

_They didn't want to get dirty…_

_They were laughing, the faceless men with hate in there eyes all the evil he'd ever known confined to one cluster of faceless beings, all laughing as they carved him up like a Christmas turkey. _

_Slit him open from sternum to navel. _

_He cant even scream cant move, chains, drugs, he doesn't know which everything was blurring together – from the bowels of the Valiant, to the cuffs of the black van, and the prison camps of WWI. _

_Struggling he tries to toss them off him as he feels the heat of their breath against his face but suddenly they are one and it's the Doctor his face twisted and distorted almost beyond recognition with disgust and anger burning in his timeless eyes, "You're wrong Jack, you'll always be wrong!"_

"_No, you're not the Doctor!" he shouted turning his head away, away from the words, away from the hateful touch of someone he loved, that couldn't, wouldn't ever love him. Not properly. _

_Definitely not like this. _

"_Yes Captain, this is me, well the real me, and I cant bear the sight of you" the Doctor spat his words belied by his body as he forced himself on the restrained human. _

_Pain pulsed behind his eyes like a living breathing entity near-to driving over the edge of sanity._

_The face changed, shifting, regenerated into some new torture, and it was no longer the Doctor with his angry eyes that made his one-human heart sink. _

_It was no longer the Doctor straddling his hips, his knees forced to his chest, pain-pain-pain burning him up like a blazing fire with each thrust. _

"_Ah, did we hurt your feelings handsome Jack?" __He knew that voice as well as he knew the Doctors. _

_He new that body like he knew Ianots'... _

_Shivers ran down his spine. _

_He opened his mouth to speak, he didn't know what he'd say – something witty and sarcastic but nothing came out. _

_He couldn't speak. _

"_Jack" the Master kept saying his name, over and over, he wouldn't stop, why wouldn't he stop?_

"Jack? Jack!" Ianto tried again prodding the Captains shoulder when there was no response but nonsensical mutterings that made little sense to the irritated young man sharing his bed.

It'd been like this for weeks ever since the Doctor had flown off in his flashy blue _Time And Relative Dimension In Space_ ship.

What was worse than Jacks quiet pining for the Doctor, which he wasn't supposed to be able to know about but it was far to late for _that_, was how Jack had been teasing him.

A brush, a kiss, a touch, only long enough for him to lean into the feel or twine his hand in Jacks hair and have him pull back with a strange look that would morph into his trade-mark grin. Ianto prayed it was no more than a phase another one of Jacks little games.

He'd get bored sooner or later, sooner rather than later Ianto could only hope because he had a healthy interest in their sex life and these past few weeks he and his hand had become reacquainted.

Shifting upward to glare at the clock he read the time, and collapsed with a grumbled "Bloody hell." He shook Jacks shoulder harder hoping to knock his bed partner from his troublesome dreams. It worked this time.

Jack lurched up in the narrow bunker style bed with a gasp and flail.

"Bad dreams?"

"Yeah."

Ianto rolled his eyes; it was going to be 20 questions apparently. Getting Jack to talk had always been like pulling teeth but lately it'd been like pulling teeth from a grizzly, bare handed.

"Do you want to talk?"

"No"

"Do you want to go back to sleep?"

"No"

"Well then we can continue playing 20 questions until morning or you can tell me what it is you do want, sir." _Or you could leave it well enough alone Ianto_, Jack thought to himself but bit back the words that pressed at the tip of his tongue. There'd be no point in alienating the one person that genuinely wanted to help, even if he didn't know what was wrong.

Owen could barely look him in the eye and Gwen was harping again because according to her he wasn't sensitive enough to the last witness - who'd ended up being a backstabbing murderer in the end. Tosh, beautiful brilliant Tosh though was the same as ever. For that, Jack couldn't help but love her.

Ianto fidgeted uncomfortably. Jack had been silent to long.

Laying out his option he prepared for a spat that would inevitably have him returning to his own flat for the rest of the night because he really did need his sleep. There was going to be a James Bond marathon tomorrow night. Ianto opened his mouth but was saved from speaking first.

"You, I want you Ianto."

Ianto almost jumped at the quietly spoken admission, "Oh" was all he could muster. Here he'd been planning a quick exit after another row and Jack wanted him.

"_Thank God. Finally._"

Jack smiled predatorily giving the younger man no chance for further words kissing him soundly. Ianto moaned into his mouth zealously taking charge as he pressed his lover back against the narrow bed.

"You need a bigger bed, sir" he muttered his hands trailing down Jacks sides stopping at his hips, "Jack" he moaned rocking his aching cock against him the friction building as Jack arched up grinding them together, "Jack, want you."

"I can see that" Jack snorted, a tiny grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Ianto leaned down his weight heavy across Jacks kissing, sucking, and marking his neck.

There'd be a mark later.

Jack arched up into the younger mans touch his hands stroking downwards eliciting moans of approval as trigger calloused fingers smoothed circles into his skin the sensation nearly driving him mad as little pleasure pulses shot through him.

"God, you taste so good," he exhaled continuing to lick and nibble and bite, soft gentle nips along the older mans' jaw line. His tongue sweeping over the tiny spot between Jacks jaw and ear.

Knowing this to be one of Jacks most sensitive areas, Ianto began to suck and lick enthusiastically, drawing needy wonton noises from his boss.

Loosing track of when Ianto ended up on top, his erection pressed against his ass, his legs propped up over Iantos' shoulders he came to his senses like a douse of frigid water. He wasn't ready no matter how badly he _wanted, needed_ to be.

"Ianto" Jack breathed quietly, how could he say it?

Ianto would know something was wrong if he stopped now.

It had been weeks since they'd done this.

"Ianto" he repeated this time infusing the name with desire.

He prayed it didn't come off as weak and brittle as he felt.

"Jack" Ianto mimicked pausing as he felt Jacks body go taunt as a bowstring.

Lust riding him hard Ianto ignored it for the moment preparing to slide into the waiting heaven of Jacks body when a strange whirling, screech had him reaching for the gun on his nightstand and Jack smiling like he'd won a trip to Hawaii with two pre-paid companions.

"It's the Doctor, isn't it?" Only one person made Jacks' face light up like that. And it wasn't him.

"Only one ship in all the galaxies makes a sound like that" Jack proudly said with something that could only be described as an infatuated smile.

_"Honestly, you'd think it was his ship!"_

Much as he liked Jacks smile he preferred to be the one to put it there not some alien Doctor and his alien Police Box ship that was "bigger on the inside" he'd heard Jack quote that so many times now he wanted to be sick.

"That's because there's nothing in all the galaxies like my TARDIS."

Ianto squeaked unseemly, feel like a mouse caught in the trap by the lure of cheese. He felt like he was the mouse and Jack was the cheese. Making the Doctor the trap. Which was absurd.

_He _was the one sleeping with Jack. Even if by 'sleeping' he only meant teenage petting and a little French kissing, these days.

Standing at the entrance of Jacks little hidey-hole beneath the Hub was _the Doctor_. Hands tucked in his coat pockets, the one that made him look like a younger prettier Sherlock Holmes, as he peered down at the pair of them with an inscrutable expression.

"_Just how long had he been there?" _Ianto wanted to know his stomach tightening queasily at the thought.

Jack being Jack just looked pleasantly surprised grinning up at the Doctor like he was the Messiah and Romeo all in one neat six-foot tall alien package.

"Doctor"

"Hello Jack."

How the Captain could squish so much innuendo and suggestion into one plain verb Ianto didn't know.

It was another one of those great mysteries of Captain Jack Harkness.

When Jack stood nearly taking the whole damn blanket with him, and he would have to if Ianto hand grabbed tight giving it a proper tug, he realized Jack wasn't as unaffected as he usually was by his nakedness.

"Whoops" Jack said passing it off with a laugh but didn't drop the bit he held wrapped round his waist.

Ianto filed the information away for later inspection. The Doctor chuckled fondly at their antics but there was something in his eye that belied his amusement.

"I'll just be here, tinkering about, looking at all these alien things that you are definitely, under no circumstances, supposed to have, well not for a few decades or two anyhow. No rush Captain" the Doctor said as he disappeared from view.

Grabbing his clothes Jack rushed into them as though Ianto hadn't already _seen, and touched, and kissed,_ every inch of his body by now.

"No rush he says" Ianto grumbled beneath his breath.

_Threaten to poke around Jacks precious toys and he says no rush? _

Ianto would have passed the comment off as innocent enough if he didn't know that the Doctor knew exactly what he was doing and Ianto didn't like it.

Dressed to the nines Jack clambered up the ladder back into the central part of the Hub. Ianto already a forgotten afterthought.

The Welshman sighed exasperatedly glancing at his hand and the aching erection Jack had left him with, "Looks like it's just me and you now" he muttered.

_I'm talking to my hand, how much more pathetic can I get?_

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**Athor Note:** **_This is the sequal to "Eclipse", and have patience b/c its will be updates slower - Eclipse was complete minus small alterations, when I began posting. I hope the sequak will match up to your expectations. As always please Read and Review or else my Muse will be angry and hide all the plot-bunnies._ **

_**Thanks. Enjoy!**_


	2. Chapter 2

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The Doctors life was brilliant. He'd been to half a dozen places since leaving Cardiff, Wales and its inhabits years behind or ahead of him – depending which way in time he'd traveled.

He'd revisited Barcelona telling himself he most definitely wasn't reminiscing _"the good ol' days"_ he wasn't trying to recapture the memories of Beta-Nine or the hilarity of Potentillahepatica. With all that distance, time, and galaxies, sandwiched between he still couldn't forget.

Revelations and epiphanies were his forte, his fortune and trade, the workings of his absolute genius, but this was one he could have lived without.

This was one he couldn't outrun or, possibly, outlive.

He wasn't sure if it was _couldn't_ or _wouldn't_, that's where the lines blurred dangerously but either way it was time to give his converses' a rest.

A little R&R was good for the soul, or was that health?

"_Why couldn't I discover something new, something thrilling, like a second moon in the Earths atmosphere hidden in a gap in time and space, or a genetically mutated Chelonian in the Atlantic Ocean, or the existence of Caxtardis'. Why did I have to go and fall for a man, a human man with 200 years worth of issues and a inclination for violence? Of the trillion people in this universe, it just had to be Jack." _

Revelations and great epiphanies were hardly something new but they were only as good as there usefulness. Einstein's theory of relativity was useful, Thomas' invention of the light-bulb was useful even if he _really_ just borrowed it…realizing you were falling for an old friend?

That was about as useful as a heater in the Sahara desert.

It was after the arctic planet of Calufrax that he'd set course to Cardiff, Wales when a palm reader told him _"Something new was on the horizon,"_ he'd laughed at that because it was hardly an original line it was like something straight of a fortune cookie!

There was always something new on the horizon. The universe was full of new horizons, and dawns, and twilights, and midday's.

Each any every one jam-packed with new possibilities, new chances.

He'd been chased out shortly after. It turned out Palm reading was an old and ancient profession sacred to that planets culture, how was he supposed to know?

Which is how he'd ended up here.

Smack dab in the middle of the Torchwood Institute.

There was a lot of irony in the fact that the very institute Queen Victoria has set up to keep a watch on him was now upheld in his honor and lead by a man who'd traveled with him, and perhaps once upon a time loved him as much as the man he'd been then could.

Here in Jacks Torchwood is how he came to find himself looking down at the two intimately twined bodies on the bed below sweat slicked and flushed with arousal, gasps and moans sounding like cannon blasts in his ears.

His hearts beating furiously against his chest left him lightheaded and dizzy, he felt…strange.

Like he'd been kicked in the teeth by a mule and had his internal organs raked over hot coals.

_He had the worst timing, didn't he?_

The only thing preserving young Ianto Jones' decency was the blanket half draped over his hips sliding lower and lower with each movement until it fell away completely baring Iantos' pale buttocks as he hiked Jacks legs up onto his shoulders.

The Doctor tried to admire how well they fit together, or how, well, in this situation cute simply wouldn't apply but attractive would do in a pinch, except it wasn't working his gut was twisting in knots, his hearts were shouting jealously. But intellectively the Doctor was concerned.

Jack couldn't possibly be ready for this level of intimacy yet, the scars he took on his body may have healed, but the ones on his psyche hadn't!

_What the heck is Jack thinking? _

_What is Ianto Jones thinking, for that matter? _

_"I should leave, I should really, really leave." _

But he couldn't. He _needed_ to stay, weather it was for his own sake or Jacks he wasn't certain. Nothing seemed certain anymore.

Then Jack was smiling up at him as though he weren't half-naked and spread out on the bed like Iantos' personal feast, as though he hadn't been about to have sex two minutes ago, as though he wasn't at all disappointed the Doctor had interrupted with his well-timed arrival.

Maybe his timing wasn't all-bad, in spite of everything.

Ah well, just reminded him to be thankful for the small things in life, like showing up in time to interrupt two lovers about to have sex, especially when you're falling for one of which. Or you know, actually making the jump to 1999 rather than 1989 successfully.

"Doctor" there was that Harkness charm oozing out, want to know how to seduce a _man, woman, or alien life form_ with two syllables or less? Take notes from Captain Jack Harkness.

It had taken 200 some-odd years but the Doctor better understood the Harkness affect now.

_Rose, Martha, Ianto, _they never stood a chance and neither did the Doctor. Apparently not even nine hundred year old Time Lords were exempt from that Harkness charm.

"Hello Jack."

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**Author Note:_ Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, they mean the world I can only hope that "Incident on 36th Street" with prove worthy._**


	3. Chapter 3

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The Doctor felt awkward, odd, and peculiarly self-conscious to be standing in the middle of the Hub without an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it crisis nipping at his heels.

Jack however had none of these inclinations.

"End of the world today?" the Doctor couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. "Ah, no, not that I know of" he said anxiously scratching at his ear.

"End of the world, tomorrow, then?"

_What was it with Jack and the end of the world?_

"I should hope not!" he said more than a little sharply, Jack either didn't notice or didn't care.

"End of the world, later this week?" he asked again his face so serious that the Doctor began to worry.

"Am I missing something, Jack? Or are you just awfully stuck on the end of the world tonight?" he snapped raising an eyebrow in question.

"Well, this is your second drop by in the same year, scratch that, the same decade! I'm just making sure the Apocalypse isn't round the corner."

_Was that supposed to be a joke?_

"I don't bring trouble Jack, I just have a nose for finding it" the Doctor insisted crossing his arms.

"Well, impending Apocalypse or not I'm still glad to see you Doctor" Jack said giving him a brief – unexpected – hug. It was warm and loose and it was over far to soon.

"Would you be saying that if I _had_ brought the Apocalypse with me?"

"Even if."

"So, you been busy?" he asked indicating his previously white converses that were not a little worse for wear and mud splattered, "Always." Jack nodded, "If you're going to be around a while-"

"I am" the Doctor inserted quickly watching Jacks reactions carefully, but all the human gave away was a pleased smile and sharp nod, "Good, like I was saying, I can have Ianto take those to the cleaners for you."

"I'm sure you're young paramour has more important things to do"

"It wont be a problem Doctor."

The Doctor doubted Ianto would agree with the Captain on that but kept his mouth shut. He wasn't going to be Iantos favorite Doctor anytime soon but there was no point telling Jack that if he couldn't see it for himself.

"So Jack any more Abbadons or uprisings?" he inquired as he headed or Jacks office smiling at the stacks of unfinished papers, the neatly disorganization of his entire office. Trinkets and knickknacks placed on the desk, one of which he recognized.

_"So he kept it…"_

Jack sighed, grumbling "No yet."

"_Right, Abbadon."_

"You sound as though you expect it to happen again, which on a scale from one to ten is a flashing red twenty!" the Doctor exclaimed waving his hands about as he spoke. What Jack said neck froze him in place, "You know humans, Doctor."

He didn't like the sound of that, not one little bit.

This wasn't like his Jack at all. _"Hold on there Doctor, he's not yours he's not anybodys...he's just Jack"_ right he'd have to remember that. Jack was his own man, of course. And he wasn't at all jealous of young Ianto Jones, not at all. Because that _would_ be rediculous.

"Yes, yes, I'd like to think I do. You humans can be so amazing, I've seen you pulls rabbits from a hat and yank yourselves back from the brink of extinction, even at the end of the universe there you were all clustered together, thriving really, given the circumstances…" the Doctor said looking directly at the Captain, "You're survivors Jack."

"I've seen con-men become honorable Captains, I've seen poor immigrants become rich millionaires, I've seen so much that I have to believe" the Doctor finished clapping Jack on the shoulder.

"Now, what do you say we wet our whistles as a bar, there is a bar around here isn't there I thought I saw one down 36 street…?" the Doctor rambled on missing the confused look on the Captains face.

"A drink?" Jack asked curiously eyeing the Doctor who came to attention with a wide-white smile, "Well, yeah, a drink, um, you interested?" the Doctor asked his hearts going thud-thud-thud, _"Blast it maybe this wasn't such a good idea."_ For some reason he'd never considered the possibility that Jack might actually say no.

Jack broke into an infectious grin; "Yeah, I'm interested."

"I didn't know you drank the good stuff," Jack explained as he tugged the Doctor towards the tourist exit and the waiting Torchwood van.

"Well, it has been a while…" the Doctor muttered.

"I get to see you drunk!" Jack chuckled with a little to much enthusiasm, "You get to _try_ and get me drunk, Gallifreyan metabolism remember" the Doctor pointed out smugly, "Far superior to you humans."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll see Doctor" Jack laughed.

"Just so long as you know it'll be on your tab Captain!" the Doctor said sliding into the passenger seat of the van tossing an amused look over at Jack who nodded keeping his eyes on the streets as he said, "I still owe you that drink don't I."

The drive went with a pleasant silence the Doctor wincing now and then at Jacks driving, but he didn't comment until the car had safely stopped, "Do you always drive like that?"

"Worse" Jack vowed with a perfectly straight face, "The team can vouch for that."

"You know bad driving is hardly something to boast about Captain," the Doctor dryly pointed out.

"Who said I drive bad? I just drive fast. Now come on, drinks on me remember?" Jack said taking his hand and tugging him through the crowd and into the bar, apparently it was Happy Hour and there were a lot of people but it wasn't a problem, Jack blazed a path right through them with a few _"'scuse me's"_ and mega-watt smiles poor things, they never knew what hit them.

The Doctor wasn't oblivious to the stares they were getting when they entered the establishment. Jack was still holding his hand. It made him uncomfortable but he wasn't going to make a fuss over it.

"Ignore them, they're jus staring cuz' we're hot and they're not" Jack chuckled, but he still released the Doctors' hand. "A few more seconds and they'll go back to their drinks" Jack murmured into his ear.

Leaning up against the bar like a man who'd done it many times before Jack asked for a brandy for him and a surprise drink for the Doctor.

"And if I don't like it?" the Doctor asked smiling at Jacks confidence. "Oh, trust me you will."

The Doctor wished he could say he didn't, just to knock that smug smirk off Jacks mouth.

"So" Jack said and his smile just kept getting bigger. "So" the Doctor mimicked refusing to give in.

Jack chuckled. "See, I do know you Doctor."

The Doctor paused mid-drink blinked a few times before nodding seriously, "I suppose you do, but no more or less than I know you _Jack Harkness_."

The Captain shrugged, knowing exactly what the Gallifreyan was getting at. The Doctor didn't know his name, and he didn't know the Doctors – on that they'd reached a stalemate. But that was okay with Jack. The Doctor was just the Doctor – if that made any sense – and Jack really was Jack now. Wear a name for a couple decades and it became your own.

"Another brandy sir, compliment of the kid over there" the bar tender said sliding the drink at Jack looking as though he'd just smelled something nasty. Jack sniffed the glass, wondering if he'd spit in it. "An admirer, and we've barely been here twenty minutes," the Doctor muttered tossing back another drink.

Jack didn't answer, in fact Jack looked a little pale.

"Jack?"

Nothing. The Doctor looked around suspiciously but all he saw was a young man with curly blond hair and big doe-eyes looking at the pair of them, ducking his head embarrassedly.

"_More than an admirer?" _

"Jack?" he said shaking the Captains shoulder, he snapped out of it with a shake of his head tossing back two more drinks in quick succession.

When he'd reached for his shoulder, he'd drawn back with a tiny almost unnoticeable flinch. _"Ah"_ the Doctor thought, that's what was going on.

"Do you know the lad?" the Doctor asked quietly, "No" Jack said sharply.

"You want to try that again" it was a rhetorical question. "Well let me take a guess shall I, you've met that boy before, more importantly you met him the night of the incident on 36 James Street" the Doctor said watching Jack carefully.

"Anything else you want to add to that" Jack asked his eyes shifting between his drink and the bar-top of which the Doctor knew there was nothing overly interesting about.

"He reminded you."

He didn't need to say what it reminded him off, that was easy enough to guess even without the flinch.

"I'll get over it" Jack said shrugging, "It probably wasn't anything I didn't ask for."

The Doctor didn't slam down his drink and deny it, he didn't shout or try and shake some sense into the Captains thick skull – but that didn't mean he didn't want to.

"And you came to that conclusion how?" he asked evenly swishing the amber liquid in the glass about the foam frothing against the edges.

"I've done things Doctor, things I'm not proud of…maybe it was just the universes way of evening the score."

"You listen to me Jack, and listen well, what those men did to you, that's on them, they took that line of what's humanly acceptable and crossed it into what _isn't_. Nothing you've ever done would justify that!" the Doctor said his voice imbibed with a righteous fever.

"You can't know that, I can't even know that. I'm missing two years of my life," Jack argued, glancing up at the Doctor hesitantly wanting to believe him. God how he wanted to…

"I can, because I know you. I know the man you were, and I know the man you are. Neither is capable of anything that could ever justify r-" the Doctor quieted down gritting his teeth, he couldn't even say it aloud the word vile and repulsive on the tip of his tongue, "_That_" he finished wearily.

Jack breathed easier the Doctors words lifting some great weight he'd been carrying around with him since the incident. It wasn't his fault. _Rationally_ he'd know that from the start.

Hearing the Doctor say it just made it _real._

Here he was at a bar with a, hopefully, slightly drunk Time Lord and he wasting time digging up the past when he could be sending it with the Doctor.

Things like this didn't happen often.

He didn't know why the Doctor had decided to visit, and he didn't know why the Doctor had come here with him. But he had. He wasn't going to waste this opportunity on self-pity.

He'd be fine, tomorrow he let Ianto fuck him and that'd be that.

_"If the horse knocks you off, you get back on." _Jack chuckled wondering what Ianto would think of _that._

He'd get over it. He always did.

Maybe he'd wait until the Doctor let first, yeah, that's what he'd do.

"_Ianto can wait a few more days," _Jack thinks to himself.

He wasn't stalling. He wasn't.

"Do you still dance?" Jack asked suddenly, "W-what?" the Doctor stammered caught off his guard, "Do you?" Jack repeated a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, "Well?"

"Here?"

"Sure, why not, there's music, people, and I'm almost drunk, come on" Jack said and if the Doctor didn't protest as much as he'd expected he blamed the drink.

_"So much for superior alien immune systems."_

If the Doctor felt the stares he gave no notice, truth was he was to busy being intoxicated by Jacks smell rich and pleasant and human as they danced so close that hips and shoulders and hands brushed. They blending well enough with the crowd that the stares lessened wading into the woodwork.

For once the Doctor was grateful that he had a mediocre sense of rhythm. The last thing he wanted was to make a fool of himself out here in front of all these people. And Jack.

Mostly just Jack, though.

The Doctor wasn't sure when exactly he lost track of time, but he thinks it must have been somewhere between the dancing and the drinking and the slight brush of Jacks hand against his hip that shot tingly feelings of desire through his body, he felt it zinging through his blood that human longing for closeness…intimacy…companionship.

_"Snap out of it" _he ordered himself. Now was not the time for that.

Jack looked over at him past several females that had lodged themselves between him and Jack, they were practically drooling all over him which wasn't really a surprise even if it was irritating which of course he had no place being. The Captain was having a ball of a time so the Doctor tolerated the heavily perfumed women propositioning Jack with their looks and insinuations.

The Doctor allowed himself a tiny grin as he watched them fawn and flirt because none of them would be leaving with the Captain.

The Doctor could hardly believe it but they'd been out so long that the bar was closing and literally kicking client out, had it really been that long?

It had only seemed like minutes really, really good minutes, which where of course the best kind. Jacks arm was casually slung over his shoulder as he passed on an offer from the petite redhead who'd been eyeing him up like a piece of meat; it was both unsettling and flattering.

"She said what?!"

Jack laughed a rich throaty sound lusty and loud as his eyes crinkled – just a little – at the corners his lips curving upwards, "Don't worry Doctor, I'll protect your virtue from lusty redheads."

"My hero!" the Doctor mocked shaking his head as they squeezed out the door, the bartender was giving the clients still loitering about dirty looks like he was going to reach under the table and pull a semi-automatic any moment, but that only happened in the movies and books, of course.

"Watch were you're going pretty-boy!"

The Doctor blinked trying to press past the rude man with the hulking figure, "Why don't you watch were your going" Jack snapped brushing past the man quickly tugging the Doctor along behind.

That should have been that, and it should have ended there but the man grabbed the Doctor forcibly pulling him around, "I was talking to you pretty-boy!" he snapped.

Jack froze something clicking into place as the mans face became a little clearer, but that voice…_shit_…before he'd even consciously realized what he was doing his Webley was drawn his finger itching at the trigger.

"Jack put that away! Lets just be on our way, Jack?" the Doctor said pulling at the Captains elbow but he might as well have been speaking to stone. In fact he'd probably have better luck there.

Jack stared at the man and he stared back paling like he'd just seen a ghost, or someone he though he'd killed but one the shock passed he was grinning like the lunatic he must be because Jack still had his gun on him, "Hello nancy-boy, didn't plan on ever seeing you again."

The Doctor knocked the gun up just as it went of with a bang that had there audience screaming and running around like chickens without a head the Doctor would have been amused, if Jack hadn't just tried to shoot someone.

The man was clearly suicidal because he was leaning into Jack whispering something in his ear and backing away into the crowd, and Jack wasn't following that was the Doctors first clue that something was terribly wrong.

The Captain was standing there hands limp at his sides the gun discarded on the floor his face carefully blank. "Jack, what was that all about?" he asked lightly touching Jacks arm, bringing him to attention with a snap.

"That was…that…shit" Jack said slumping limply against the door all the fire gone out of him.

"Oh, oh!" the Doctor said everything becoming brutally clear his own anger tried to rise but he pushed it back now was not the time for that.

Being angry would change nothing, being angry wouldn't get Jack home.

"Lets just get you home now" he said gently, wondering if it would have been so bad to let Jack shoot the man, he'd certainly deserve it, but he couldn't start thinking like that. That wasn't him.

"So that was one of them," it was a statement not a question.

"Yeah."

"Your team still doesn't know."

"Only Owen."

"You do realize there's no shame in what happened, it's not your fault," the Doctor muttered. He wasn't prepared for Jacks quiet, broken answer, his voice paper thin in a way he'd never heard it before, "Isn't it though?"

Jack looked so desolate, so defeated and tried. He looked every year his age, shoulders bowed under the weight of time his eyes locked on some distant point out the window as the Torchwood SUV rumbled gently on home. Jack looked so unlike Jack that he didn't know what to say. So he said nothing.

Before he had a chance to rummage up some words something clever or wise, they were at the Hub and Jack was sliding out the door and in the Hub the Doctor close on his heels, "Jack-"

"Its been a long night Doctor, can I expect to be making breakfast for two tomorrow?"

"Yes, if you have jam? I've missed that, you wouldn't happen to have any of that about now would you?" he asked taking the hint that they would not be having that discussion now. If ever.

"Jam? Yeah its has some creative uses" Jack smirked liking the way the Doctor sort of went all big-eyed and blushing before chuckling, "I'm sure it does. Good night Captain I'll just be…here" he said motioning toward his ship.

"Good night Doctor!" Jack shouted from his bunker below the floors and the Doctor smiled closing the door to the TARDIS.

_"Good night Captain." _

They'd talk tomorrow, what was the rush, they had plenty of time they did.

His bunker seeming even smaller and colder than usual Jack tossed and turned on the sheets unable to shut down his mind.

He kept replaying the evening trying to forget Him and remember the feel of the Doctors' nose bumping his as they dances, close and comfortable as only old friends could, the flutter that went through him like a shot of whiskey whenever skin brushed making his heart do a silly little jump in his chest…

He held on to that while burying the rest but the memories would not let him be rising from the graves he'd dug like vampires.

_The laughing faces of men with hate and ignorance burning in there eyes… _

_The caress of unwanted hands…_

_To hot breath at his neck…_

The shame of it all riding him hard Jack fell into a restless sleep and when the dreams returned in the dark of night there was none to wake him but his own screams.

* * *

**Authors Note:_ For all who have reviewed my utmost thanks, truly, I treasure each and every one. My Doctor Muse has jilted me so have patience while I track her down, the blot bunnies are hiding so all review, ideas and thoughts are welcomed (more than ever). That said please let me know what you think._ **


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